THE SCATTERING OF ASHES

After "Buried in oblivion", this great band from Regina, Canada, has created another very good album. Let's start with the wonderful cover (really wonderful): Mattias Norén has represented perfectly the mood of the songs: a balance between strenght (the statue) and frailty (the ashes). In fact here we have the "growling" voice and the "clear" one (and sometimes an acute "screaming"). But don't worry if you don't like growling (Tim Roth's voice), because in this case it fits perfectly the speed and the power of the songs, and the clean vocals by Stu Block are so good, too. The songs are catchy, relatively short (max lenght is 5.08), but well focused, all the instruments are perfectly played, high quality production. The guitar playing alone is outstanding. Great and fast solos, catchy and powerful riffs, and also some passages of acoustic guitar (Surrounded by night). Listen to this album and you won't regret it, even if you're not a fan of "death" prog-metal, or, if you want, prog metal with some death metal shades. The whole album is outstanding, no weak or filler tracks (Novus Inceptum is an intro). The moods you will find are speediness, anger, aggressivity, but also some peaceful moments (to be true, only one!). I would like to repeat my personal opinion on the cover art: a marvelous artwork. One of the nominee to be the best album of 2006. I REALLY suggest it to everyone. A real masterpiece.